纽约是怎样成为美国最大城市的?

In the 18th century, New York was smaller than Philadelphia and Boston. Today it is the largest city in America. How can the change in its size and importance be explained?

To answer this question we must consider certain facts about geography, history, and economics. Together these three will explain the huge growth of America’s most famous city.

The map of the Northeast shows that the four areas with the largest populations in this region are around seaports. At these points materials from across the sea enter the United States, and the products of the land are sent there for export across the sea.

We know that places where transportation lines meet are good places for making raw materials into finished goods. That is why seaports often have cities nearby. But cities like New York needed more than their geographical location in order to become great industrial centers. Their development did not happen simply by chance.

About 1815, when many Americans from the east had already moved toward the west, transportation routes from the seaports to the central regions of the country began to be a serious problem. The slow wagons of that time, usually drawn by horses, were too expensive for moving heavy freight very far. In New York State a canal seemed the best answer to the transportation problem. From the eastern end of Lake Erie all the way across the state to the Hudson River there is a long strip of low land. Here the Erie Canal was built, after several years of work it was completed in 1825.

The canal produced an immediate effect. Freight costs were cut to about one tenth of what they had been. New York City, which had been smaller than Philadelphia and Boston, quickly became the leading city of the coast. In the years that followed, transportation routes on the Great Lakes were joined to routes on the Mississippi River. Then New York City became the end point of a great inland shipping system that started from the Atlantic Ocean far up the western branches of the Mississippi.

The coming of the railroads made canal shipping less important, but it tied New York even more closely to the central regions of the country. It was easier for people in the central states to ship their goods to New York for export overseas.

Exports from New York were greater than imports. As a result, shipping companies made every effort to fill their ships with passengers on the return trip from Europe. And so passengers could come from Europe very cheaply.

Thus New York became the greatest port for receiving people from European countries. Many of these people remained in the city. Others stayed in New York for a few weeks, months, or years, and then moved to other parts of the United States. For these great numbers of new Americans, New York had to provide homes, goods and other things. Their labor helped the city become great.

在18世纪,纽约还没有波士顿和费城大。今天,纽约已经是美国最大的城市。纽约城面积的扩大和重要性的提升所有的这些改变该如何解释呢?

为了回答这个问题,我们必须从对地理、历史还有经济这些事实的了解开始,综合这三个方面将解释清楚美国最有名的城市――纽约的巨大增长。

看一下美国地图,东北地区内的4个人口最多的地方都围绕着海港。在这些海港,来自海外的材料由此进入美国,同时,美国内地的产品则运到这些港口进行出口。

我们知道,交通运输线相会的地区是把原材料制成成品的好地方。海港是海运和陆运的交汇点,所以它附近会有很多城市。但是,像纽约这样的城市仅仅靠其地理位置的优越是无法成为大工业中心的,纽约的发展并不仅仅是因为偶然。

大约在1815年,那时许多美国人已经从东边迁移到西边,这个国家从海港到内陆的交通运输线开始成为一个严重的问题。那个时期的车厢通常是马拉的,很慢,把货物运送到遥远的地区要花很多的钱。但是,纽约州的一条运河也许是交通运输问题的最佳解决方案。东起伊利湖的尾部,一路穿越纽约州到达哈德孙河,有一长条的低洼地带。这就是伊利运河的前身,该运河被建造了多年之后在1825年完工。

伊利运河建成之后马上就起作用了,货物运费降低至原来的十分之一。一个曾经小于费城和波士顿的纽约很快成为沿海城市的领导者。在接下来的几年,大湖的交通运输线和密西西比河结合。纽约州成为内陆船运大网的结束点,这张大网从大西洋开始,远至密西西比河的西线支流。

后来,铁路的建造使得运河船运的重要性降低,但是它把纽约和美国内陆中心区域更紧紧地拴在一起,这使得中心区域的人们能更容易地把货物送至纽约出口。

对于纽约来说,出口多于进口。结果是,船运公司在从欧洲返回的路上尽一切努力把他们的船装满乘客,这样来自欧洲的乘客花的船费也会变得便宜。

因此,纽约成为接收欧洲人的最大港口。许多欧洲移民一直待在这个城市,其他人在这待了几周、几月或几年后迁往到美国的其他地区。对于大量的新美国人,纽约不得不提供住房、生活用品和其他东西,同时,他们回报的劳动又使纽约变得更伟大。